vancouver

Homorazzi.com, in collaboration with Martini Presents invite you to reFRESH @ Republic for our mid-July T-Dance!

For those of you that have never been to a T-Dance, it’s based on the idea of afternoon tea, yet, instead of sipping Red Rose & devouring desserts, you’re drinking beer and booze and devouring boys. People don’t really dance… until that “booze” hits that is… it’s more of a mingle, meet new people, and share some laughs kinda thing. It’s a lot more relaxed atmosphere than your typical night out at the bar, allowing for the opportunity to actually converse with another hottie. I’ve been going to Martini Presents T-Dances for quite some time, personally. As a part of the Out For Kicks Soccer League and previously a board member, I’ve attended Martini Presents Soccer Fundraiser T-Dances religiously. They’re usually branded as “Trouble T-Dance,” so this time we decided to put our own twist on it, calling it “reFRESH T-Dance.” There is already a loyal crowd that goes to the T-Dances, but more and more they’re garnering new, die hard fans and to the boys that have never been to one, I’d definitely recommend you check it out as you don’t know what you’re missing! It’d be great to bridge the gap and have a bunch of fresh new faces to spice things up: reFRESH it if you will!

For a few months now, I’ve been playing on an Ultimate Frisbee league with a bunch of people from my work. We play other teams from all over the city, and it’s been quite enjoyable.

I was a little skeptical at first. To be completely honest, I considered Ultimate to be sort of a sport for dorks, ranking right up there with darts and Magic: The Gathering. Vancouver seems to have a lot of people that play though, especially at my work. There’s the team that I play for, but there are people I work with who play on one or more other teams as well.

The rules aren’t quite what I expected. When I first joined, I just assumed it was like football, but with a frisbee (sorry, disk. Frisbee is a brand). I assumed wrong. First off, it’s a non-contact sport. This was the biggest challenge for me to grasp at first since I’m used to playing soccer and basketball. If you’re familiar with basketball, in Ultimate, you’re not even allowed to set a pick. If another person is blocking you from running, that’s a foul.

There’s quite a few more rules that I’m not entirely sure of, but I’m learning every week.

This weekend I had the opportunity to eat at a fantastic restaurant on Main @ 11th. I had driven by many times and never thought very much of it while passing by. It’s called Ping’s Cafe.

Some background on Ping’s as per the website: “Ping’s specializes in western influenced Japanese comfort food ideal for sharing. It got its name accidentally. A Chinese-Canadian diner occupied this space in the 1980s & it was called Ping’s Café. We discovered their old sign behind an awning & adopted it. Ping’s was built entirely by hand, except for the chairs, by friends & family for no profit. The art was donated.”

The exterior is very unassuming. Translucent white windows and a small white sandwich board give an illusion of the ordinary from the street. When you walk in you’ll be quite surprised to see what is a captivating space it is. Dozens of Bocci Raw White Porcelain Pendants are suspended from the tiled ceiling - 7 clusters along each side – and almost 60 black pendants of the same design along the bar area. Stainless steel tables, opposing white-framed mirrors on the wall (great for people watching at the tables behind you), and a few pieces of simple art complete the setting. I couldn’t stop looking up at the lighting – it’s magical. There isn’t much to the space, but it’s put together amazingly well.

Best friends Rob Easton and Sean Horlor are determined to figure out what it takes to make it “out” there in the big wide world.

The premise: Rob and Sean meet someone doing a job; that person teaches them how to do it; and then, they compete to see who does it better.

Some of these “jobs”- including runway modeling and stripping- are performed in front of live audiences, while others such as being a bus driver are done only in front of the camera. We attended their fashion show, and most recently… the strip show!

A little background. I’ve known of Rob for quite some time: he’s Jamie’s ex actually, and now Jamie’s my ex… so, transitive property: we know each other! More recently, I met Sean during Adam’s Top Model Competition, and now Sean’s dating my roommate Landon. Oh what a tangled web we weave. ANYWAY…

I’ve heard that a lot lately. I used to say it all the time myself. And, a lot of people have been asking me for advice from me with respect to them starting a business (flattered by the way!).

Working for yourself is certainly very rewarding and needless to say it’s great being your own boss. You have no one to answer to but yourself, and the possibilities are endless. You don’t have to wait for the next position to become available for you to be eligible for a pay increase. You don’t (or shouldn’t) dread going into work on Monday. It is a completely different lifestyle than going into an office every day.

I’ve always been the entrepreneurial type. I get bored doing the same thing for an extended period of time, so the idea of working at a desk for someone else for the rest of my life makes me want to curl up into a ball and hide. When I started college, I was working three jobs to pay for my school: as a lifeguard/swimming instructor, restaurant manager, and ICBC Youth Ambassador. I couldn’t do just one thing. Eventually, I had to let one of them go so that I wouldn’t work myself to death. Actually, it worked out well because by the time I moved away to university in Victoria, I didn’t have to work anymore because I had been working as a summer student at Alcan (aluminum smelter plant) in the summers and I made enough money to more or less pay for the rest of my schooling. Read the rest of this entry »

WHAT A HEADLINE RIGHT? I think it’s got to be one of my best one’s ever.

One of my closest friends Sean, is co-hosting a brand new show on OutTV called “Don’t Quit Your Gay Job”. It’s a show where Sean and co-host/friend Rob spend one full day on the job of a typical gay or lesbian person. Jobs this season include bus driver, eqquestrian, hair stylist (although I have no idea who would trust either of them to cut their hair), dominatrix, model, drag queen and a few others.

For their big finale, they are planning something (Hopefully!) big for this Thursday night. Sean and Rob are taking to the stage. Sean (aka Shadow Delmonte) and Rob (Chuck Highway) will be STRIPPING(!!!) at Celebrities Night Club alongside megahunk Reese Rideoutfor their X-Rated party. How are they going to do? Who knows, my only concern would be that they would succumb to what Sean and I have dubbed the Jaric Syndrome, which is just a bitchy way of saying not able to get it up.

So, if you want to see these hunks strip, get to Celebrities this Thursday night for X-Rated & Don’t Quit You Gay Job, and no matter what give them props. This is probably the hardest thing either one of them will have to do, tip them well and give them a pat on the butt when they leave the stage.

Sunday night I trekked down to Richard’s on Richards (Vancouver’s finest concert venue, in my opinion) to catch Swedish indie/pop singer Jens Lekman. Lekman’s last release, Night Falls Over Kortedala was a familiar occurrence on my iTunes playlist last year.

I brought along a friend who had never heard of him, and I couldn’t really find the right words to describe his songs. They can be poppy, light, and fun. But they also can pack an emotional punch. I guess he’s a little bit of a mix between The Smiths, and The Magnetic Fields. He has a powerful charming voice very similar to a younger Morrisey.

When we entered Richard’s the opening act was already on stage. I was told that Lekman was touring with a lesbian comedian, Tig Notaro. Unless we missed her set, it seems like she wasn’t the opener. We were greated by a lone guitarist/singer on stage crooning out some quiet heartfelt songs. I didn’t catch his name, but I wasn’t really feeling it. There wasn’t a lot of energy to his set.